When you become an adult, suddenly all the barriers that guided you are gone, whether the barriers were for good or for ill you're left with a strange feeling where before your choices were provided for you, now stretches a horizon of limitless possibilities. It is not a good nor is it a bad thing, but I'll always remember it as being a scary thing and it took me a while to grapple with where my direction was headed once the realisation set in, and the feelings I had of wanting to go back to when life was simpler. This life experience is everything about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and more, a game which asks questions about the many paths life can take, the choices available to someone, the regret from not taking a choice, and how one can seize their own destiny to move forward from the past, this is easily Takahashi's best work, and the pinnacle of the Xeno-series thus far.
Takahashi forges one of the strongest main casts of characters in a JRPG here, explored thoroughly and meaningfully. One of the biggest merits of the writing of this cast are the frequent discussions everyone has to each other discussing their innermost feelings, insecurities, and doubts. All six members often rarely obscure their problems, and even when they do their counterpart often picks up on any distress immediately and also immediately acts for their friend, it's extremely realistic and heartwarming, ESPECIALLY for a JRPG which normally derives tropes that can be frustratingly obtuse when it comes to social interactions. This step up in character writing is also bolstered by a step up in cutscene direction, the action cutscenes are breathtakingly hype, and when the mood calls for it the lower tempo cutscenes can leave you at the edge of your seat as you watch these kids navigate through the next stage of their lives.
Unfortunately, there has to be some ball dropped when it comes to a Xeno game, and in this case I would say it's the villains, Moebius has a few standout characters in side quests, and like three good characters in the main story, and generally they really just feel like vehicles for the characters to grapple emotional problems around, rather than full characters themselves. It doesn't help that almost every member of Moebius is a sociopathic arrogant manchild, which wears out its welcome pretty quickly. It's very strange to me that they continue to feign arrogance and superiority when by a point in the game our party has killed many of their kind already.
This was the JRPG I didn't know I needed, and I think even if you don't really like the Xeno series, this game is a fantastic entry to the genre as a whole and it feels like a full uncompromised vision of a Monolith Soft game in all its glory, without any of the baggage weighing it down like 2.
Takahashi forges one of the strongest main casts of characters in a JRPG here, explored thoroughly and meaningfully. One of the biggest merits of the writing of this cast are the frequent discussions everyone has to each other discussing their innermost feelings, insecurities, and doubts. All six members often rarely obscure their problems, and even when they do their counterpart often picks up on any distress immediately and also immediately acts for their friend, it's extremely realistic and heartwarming, ESPECIALLY for a JRPG which normally derives tropes that can be frustratingly obtuse when it comes to social interactions. This step up in character writing is also bolstered by a step up in cutscene direction, the action cutscenes are breathtakingly hype, and when the mood calls for it the lower tempo cutscenes can leave you at the edge of your seat as you watch these kids navigate through the next stage of their lives.
Unfortunately, there has to be some ball dropped when it comes to a Xeno game, and in this case I would say it's the villains, Moebius has a few standout characters in side quests, and like three good characters in the main story, and generally they really just feel like vehicles for the characters to grapple emotional problems around, rather than full characters themselves. It doesn't help that almost every member of Moebius is a sociopathic arrogant manchild, which wears out its welcome pretty quickly. It's very strange to me that they continue to feign arrogance and superiority when by a point in the game our party has killed many of their kind already.
This was the JRPG I didn't know I needed, and I think even if you don't really like the Xeno series, this game is a fantastic entry to the genre as a whole and it feels like a full uncompromised vision of a Monolith Soft game in all its glory, without any of the baggage weighing it down like 2.